States and institutions in both conventionally authoritarian and formally democratic societies overtly circumscribe freedom in any number of ways. Yet there are also subtler forms by which authorities and cultural forces compromise the choices of individuals in ways that do not seem, at first glance, to be coercive. This book brings together a distinguished set of scholars to examine covert constraints on academic, political, and economic freedom from a variety of angles, developing surprising and timely new insights.
Ranging across philosophy, economics, law, health, science, art, and the media, luminaries from different fields expose threats to freedom within avowedly liberal and democratic institutions and cultures. Their incisive essays, both analytical and historical, emphasize how economic inequality, academic orthodoxy, media control, racism, and gender roles undermine the potential for human flourishing. By considering such multifarious noncoercive threats, they illuminate the vexed notion of freedom. Lively and learned, this book offers a provocative and urgent understanding of the often-unacknowledged forces that restrict our choices.
Contributors include David Bromwich, Eric Foner, Robert Gooding-Williams, Michael Ignatieff, Laura Kipnis, Anya Schiffrin, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Geoffrey R. Stone. In an essay and an interview with the volume editors, Noam Chomsky addresses the neoliberal assault on academic freedom.
Edited by:
Akeel Bilgrami,
Jonathan R. Cole (John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University)
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780231218566
ISBN 10: 0231218567
Pages: 472
Publication Date: 02 December 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Further / Higher Education
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Editors’ Introduction, by Akeel Bilgrami and Jonathan R. Cole Part I. Philosophical Issues 1. Why Freedom to Say Enlarges Freedom to Think, by David Bromwich 2. Kant and “Can’t”: Practical Necessity and the Diminution of Options, by Jeremy Waldron 3. Freedom and Unfreedom in Human Categories: The Case of Multiplicity, by Carol Rovane Part II. Political Economy 4. Freedom and Coercion, Opportunity and the Economy: Neoliberalism, the Individual, and Society, by Joseph E. Stiglitz 5. Capitalism and the Question of Freedom, by Prabhat Patnaik 6. Whither Economic Rights?, by Akeel Bilgrami Part III. Society and Law 7. Roe v. Wade: Freedom of the Woman Versus Freedom of the Fetus, by Geoffrey R. Stone 8. Freedom and Coercion in Public Health, by Robert Klitzman 9. The Prosecution of Gender Equal Abrahamic Circumcision: Implications for Jews and Muslims, by Richard A. Shweder Part IV. Race 10. Freedom in the American Century and After, by Eric Foner 11. Freedom Through Unfreedom: Du Bois’s Theory of Democratic Despotism, by Robert Gooding-Williams 12. The Denial of Freedom and Punitive Excess, by Bruce Western and Jessica T. Simes Part V. The Academy 13. The University in a Time of Crisis, by Noam Chomsky 14. Persuasion, Manipulation, and Unfreedom, by Michael Ignatieff 15. Ridicule and Argument, by Jon Elster 16. Is Wokeism Changing the Nature of Inquiry?, by Akeel Bilgrami 17. A Confederacy of Snitches, by Laura Kipnis 18. Freedom Gained and Freedom Lost in American Science, by Jonathan R. Cole and Daria Franklin Part VI. Media 19. Evaluating the Fake News Problem at the Scale of the Information Ecosystem, by Jennifer Allen, Baird Howland, Markus Mobius, David Rothschild, and Duncan J. Watts 20. Measuring the News and Its Impact on Democracy, by Duncan J. Watts, David M. Rothschild, and Markus Mobius 21. Fighting Disinformation: Lessons from the 1930s, by Anya Schiffrin Notes Bibliography Contributors Index
Akeel Bilgrami is Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy and a faculty member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Jonathan R. Cole is John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University at Columbia University, where he was provost and dean of faculties from 1989 to 2003. Bilgrami and Cole are the editors of Who’s Afraid of Academic Freedom? (Columbia, 2015).
Reviews for Noncoercive Threats to Academic, Political, and Economic Freedom
A treasure-chest of illuminating surprises. -- Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Columbia University
